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The Blood of Flowers, by Anita Amirrezvani

Anita Amirrezvani is an American of Iranian descent and one of her motives in writing this novel was to present a ‘more nuanced view’ of Iran than is normally seen in the news. The novel is set in the seventeenth century, in the reign of Shah Abbas, and mostly takes place in the then Persian capital, Isfahan.

The story is about the coming of age of a young village girl whose expectations of marriage and motherhood are ruined by the untimely death of her father. She and her mother are forced to seek assistance from their only relative, their father’s half brother, a wealthy carpet maker in Isfahan. The city offers both attractions and challenges for the un-named narrator, and while it will come as no surprise to find out that by her courage and skills she learns to overcome the problems she faces, she does so in a particularly original and satisfying way. ‘I was bold, but I was no longer rash,’ she says. ‘I finally understood the difference’.

On one level the story is about daily events in the girl’s life, and these are interesting enough. Amirrezvani has done extensive research about seventeenth century Isfahan, and the details she presents of food, clothing, buildings, forms of address, personal relations and work are fascinating and convincing. Most important in the story are the details of carpet making, and the sigheh, or temporary marriage contract. All these form a natural part of the narrative, without any parade of scholarship.

On another level, the story is about the power of beauty and of love. The power of beauty is expressed in the making of carpets. Her uncle explains that in making carpets, ‘we, the rug makers, protest all that is evil. Our response to cruelty, suffering and sorrow is to remind the world of the face of beauty’. Such beauty has a spiritual dimension; it can direct us to ‘the magnificence of the infinite’, just as the dome of the mosque leads minds up to greater things. But service to the creation of carpets can do great physical damage to the rug maker; ‘All our labours were in the service of beauty, but sometimes it seemed as if every thread in a carpet had been dipped in the blood of flowers’. (This phrase comes from a poem by an unknown Sufi poet c. 1500.) The service of love is equally ambiguous. Love – for parents, relatives, friends and the opposite sex – is another area where the narrator has finally to come of age and make her ‘own choices’.

The story is very simply written, as is appropriate for the voice of the young narrator. There are occasionally phrases that grate, like ‘we entered our one room home’, but in general the prose flows smoothly and the book is easy to read. Expressions like ‘We are dust beneath your feet’ or ‘May your visit be charmed’ are scattered liberally throughout and can carry a surprising range of meanings; sometimes they are the courtesy they appear, but other times they mean exactly the opposite. In addition to the ordinary narration, there are seven short tales interspersed through out. Five of them are based on traditional Persian sources, and two have been created by the author in the traditional style. All have some relevance to the themes of the novel. All begin ‘First there wasn’t and then there was. Before God, no one was’, which is the charming Iranian way of saying ‘Once upon a time …’

I think Amirrezvani has done a great job of evoking empathy for the world of seventeenth century Iran. Certainly there are customs described, like those relating to the position of women, which are abhorrent to western readers. In the novel they are rightly treated without overt judgement, as part of daily life in that time and place, with the ultimate independence of the narrator being comment enough. In this way, Amirrezvani has gone beyond Iranian history as merely a curiosity, to the ‘broader view of the people and the place’ she was hoping for.

Some of Isfahan is still as described in the book. Here are some pictures of it. You can read more about the book and the author here.